I recollect that these Dash8 Q300 aircraft were surplus to Eastern & Sunstate requirements and were stored at Tamworth awaiting sale. The recently Uni graduated management experts sipping Latte’s in The Street found that there was no market for these aircraft so they searched for ways to utilise them as it looks bad to have non-revenue aircraft on the books (& not good for KPI’s/bonuses) so the concept of Propstar was born. The failure of this QF Group baby airline will be attributed to the high cost of those pesky pilots and not to the fact that it was poorly thought out by the brains trust.
It will be interesting if they are now able to dispose of these unwanted/unloved aircraft.